Picking Cotton in Michigan
“Jump down, turn around, pick a bale of cotton. Gotta jump down, turn around, Oh, Lordie, pick a bale a day.”
These are some lyrics in a song that was pulled from a recital lineup in a middle school in Michigan. An AP report yesterday on MSNCB.com said that the black parent of an 11-year-old girl pulled her from participating because the song lyrics were offensive. The head of the school "decided to pull" the song. Hallelujiah! Not really. There was no admission that the school had done anything wrong. They pulled it not because there was anything "derogatory in the song's lyrics," but rather because they didn't want the girl to sit on the sidelines. In fact, the school head couldn't keep her mouth shut, insisting that it is just a "Southern type of folk song ... more of a song that people just sang for fun." Oh, but they did this for the girl and the school. Just a perky little song about pickin' cotton. Let's look a little closer. "Gotta jump down, turn around, Oh, Lordie, pick a bale a day," or massas gon' whoop my ass! That's what it's really about. Not only that, but I better be pickin' the cotton with a big ol' grin on my face. The lyrics of this little pulled ditty remind me of lyrics from another song:
Come listen all you galls and boys I's jist from Tuckyhoe, I'm going to sing a little song, my name's Jim Crow, Weel about and turn about and do jis so, Eb'ry time I weel about and jump Jim Crow.
Thomas Rice made minstrelsy popular when he applied burnt cork to his face and performed the song "Jim Crow" in front of white audiences. The point of minstrelsy, although the buffoons in the audience probably didn't know it while they were enjoying it, was to justify the South's treatment of slaves. If they're wheeling and turning about with such glee, then they must love their jobs.
"Africans in America" Remembrances of slavery proliferate and will do so till well after we're all dead. Perky little songs get handed down through schools without a consideration of the lyrics and what they represent. Language is passed on and derives power from use on a daily basis. I've been called a "nigger" more times than once in my life. And for what? That's just one example. Songs like these that glorify a horrendous time in history are glossed over as just a little tune. The eleven-year-old girl and her father stood up and refused to participate until something was done. Unfortunately, she'll most likely get shit from her predominantly white school once the word is out, thus attaching negativity to her actions. And unfortunately, the school pulled the song for all the wrong reasons. Sure it's a small step in the Midwest but the step isn't getting us very far. It's akin to bandaging a wound that needs much more than a bandage. It'll continue to be infected until the root is cured. And it'll just keep coming back.
